Joshua Whitehead is an Oji-Cree, Two-Spirit storyteller and academic from Peguis First Nation on Treaty 1 territory in Manitoba. He left his mark on the Canadian literary scene with his earlier books, the novel Jonny Appleseed and the poetry collection full-metal indigiqueer. In his new book, called Making Love with the Land, Whitehead explores Indigeneity, queerness, and the relationship between body, language and land through various essays, memoirs, notes and confessions. 

Though still young, Whitehead’s work has found much acclaim. Jonny Appleseed was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and shortlisted for a Governor-General’s Literary Award in Fiction, and full-metal indigiqueer was shortlisted for the inaugural Indigenous Voices Award for Most Significant Work of Poetry in English and the Stephan G Stephansson Award for Poetry. (Sidebar - I’ll admit, as a comedian, I can’t help but obsess over a name like ‘Stephan G Stephansson’, and I am equally amused by terms like “longlisted” and “shortlisted”. What is it with the literary establishment and the length of their lists?) Currently Whitehead is working on a PhD in Indigenous Literature and Cultures at the University of Calgary’s English department (Treaty 7).

Whitehead recently made news in literary circles when he turned down a nomination from the Lambda Literary Awards because they nominated him in the new Trans Poetry category. “I live my life as a gay-femme and not as a trans Indigenous person,” he clarified. “Pulling out of the Lambda was super important as it wasn’t my space to take.” Well, long or short, let’s hope Making Love with the Land ends up on the right list, then.